KTAA and Quilting

Kuwait Textiles Art Association saw the end of another year and another quilt and fiber arts exhibition. As I was helping to hang the exhibits as well as , today watching the judged, award winning pieces , my mind was traveling back in time.

I had seen it all , the beginning , growth and changes that time brought to the quilting scene of Kuwait. Few of us who were there from the birth of the quilt group since 1999 and exhibited in the first exhibition to now fondly remember the way we started and walked ahead as a group . These were the fond memories we will carry where ever we go.There was an unspoken bonding among us, at times the members consisted of 19 different nationalities .Most of the best judges and teachers of the world had visited us. Many of us have exhibited in the best exhibitons of the world.

Today looking at the 19 th exhibition there is one change I can clearly see is the growth of local quilters. Few years before they were the bystanders except a few , watching others, with more exposure to life and outside world and more than anything , hold over language , winning all the top awards.

But today majority of the awards are won by the local girls which is commendable. What I see in the exhibition may not be of exquisite quality work but equisit in out of the box ideas, enthusiasm to participate and willingness to experiment .Most of them are very new to quilting but it looks like finally they have arrived.

As it is my 19 th year with this group I am happy for that.Some of them are my students at some point

.The quilt and fiber art coordinators did a wonderful job of braking the language barrier by being bilingual, explaining and teaching the ladies .

The judge Lisbet Borggreen from Denmark held a couple of workshops and I could see the girls enjoying it.

Hoping to see better work each year though I may move on and move out like many of my predicisors